The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a project in construction to measure the expansion history of the Universe using the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation technique. The spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars over 14,000 square degrees will be measured during the life of the experiment. A new prime focus corrector for the KPNO Mayall telescope will deliver light to 5000 fiber optic positioners. The fibers in turn feed ten broad-band spectrographs covering a 360 - 980 nm passband with a spectral resolution (λ/Δλ) between 1500 and 4000. The spectrograph uses two dichroic beam splitters to separate the flux among three spectral cameras, each with a volume phase holographic grating and lens system that focuses onto a charge coupled device detector. We describe the spectrograph, its system requirements, design and construction.

Date Published: 9 July 2018
PDF: 18 pages
Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107027G (9 July 2018); doi: 10.1117/12.2311821

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 10702:
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII
Christopher J. Evans; Luc Simard; Hideki Takami, Editor(s)